Former Iowa resident to speak on growing up in Ethiopia

Former Newton resident Tim Bascom will speak at an educational event at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 223 E. Fourth St. N., Saturday.

Starting at 7 p.m., Bascom will be reading excerpts from his new book “Running to the Fire,” a memoir of growing up in revolutionary Ethiopia in the 1970s.

“Running to the Fire” focuses on the turbulent year Bascom’s family experienced when traveling into revolutionary Ethiopia. As a teenager, he found it exhilarating to live so close to the constant danger. While attending boarding school in Addis Ababa, he made bonds with other young people due to their shared sense of threat.

During his time there, he writes about how he fell in love for the first time, but was separated from his first love by the politics that affected everyone who lives in the area. All around the country, missionaries were held under house arrest while communists seized the hospitals and schools. One of his friend’s father was imprisoned as a suspected CIA agent and another was killed by raiding Somalis.